Murder in the First Degree

" Do not murder" Matthew 19:18 (HCSB)

It doesn’t matter how you define the victim, to contemplate the act of bringing about the death of another individual, to determine the method and means whereby the act will be consummated, and then causing such action, is, by law, defined as first degree murder. Jesus said, “do no murder” (Matthew 19:18).

The shrill voices of pseudo-intellectualism, political expediency, and hysterical feminism will never dissolve the fundamental truth that all human life is authored and bestowed by God and the termination of life by choice* or whim is a violation of Sovereign design.

A society inundated with the death of innocents is only a step away from the destruction of genocide. (See Deuteronomy 27:25; Isaiah 59:7; Jeremiah 22:17) Alain Destexhe, Secretary General of Doctors Without Borders said, “Killing someone simply because he or she exists is a crime against humanity; it is a crime against the very essence of what it is to be human. This is not an elimination of individuals because they are political adversaries, or because they hold to what are regarded as false beliefs or dangerous theories, but a crime directed against the person as a person, against the very humanity of the individual victim.”

During these days in our beloved Republic, the cry for freedom to choose death for another individual because of one’s own incorrect choices, indiscretion, ignorance, inappropriate behavior, and a multitude of other indiscriminate sins, is driving our nation toward unspeakable evil. As hundreds of thousands gather in our Nation’s Capitol, and undetermined numbers of citizens clamor or whisper in favor of crime against humanity, there must be those who speak vociferously for Truth. The words of British philosopher Edmund Blake still ring true, “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

No thought here, however, is complete without a clear understanding that God in His infinite mercy and grace chooses to forgive. As believers, while we may find ourselves, or know of another, guilty of any sin, when we can agree with God and see our sin as He sees it, (see 1 John 1:9) He is forgiving and cleansing. Learning to forgive ourselves is a much more difficult task. But God is gracious, and brings unmeasured peace to those whose mind is stayed on Him.

*The taking of a life in war, or in self-preservation, must never be our choice, but an action demanded by necessity or command.